1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to systems for packing multiple items. More particularly the invention is directed to a system of packing and/or storing multiple items in a way that minimizes volume so as to reduce shipping and packaging costs and facilitate packing and unpacking of the items.
2. Description of Related Art
Manufactured items often need to be shipped in bulk to warehouses, wholesalers, retailers, and other destinations before they are purchased by consumers. It is commonly desired to maximize the spatial packing efficiency of the packed items during bulk shipping so as to minimize the costs associated with shipping; the smaller the volume something occupies, the less expensive it is to ship, and the lower the costs associated with packing materials are. It is often important to protect manufactured items from damage during shipping. When cartons of items are dropped or jarred, the individual items inside can bump into each other and often damage each other.
One conventional way of alleviating some of the above problems is by wrapping the items in flexible sheets of plastic with a great number of air pockets trapped therein, or "bubble wrap". Bubble wrap is commonly wrapped around an item and then tape or a rubber band is fastened around the bubble wrap to secure the bubble wrap to the item.
Bubble wrap can be useful in some applications, however it suffers from a number of drawbacks. First, an item wrapped in bubble wrap occupies a significantly larger volume than does the item by itself; the use of bubble wrap thereby drives the cost of shipping and storing the items up. Second, bubble wrap can be difficult to apply around items, especially if the items are irregularly shaped. Similarly, bubble wrap can be difficult to remove, making the unpacking process time consuming and expensive. Moreover, for small items, it is common that several items will be wrapped in the same piece of bubble wrap; should these items be jarred, they can easily strike against one another thereby damaging each other. Finally, after the items have been unpacked, there is a great deal of high volume waste generated by the removed bubble wrap.